Instagram Starts Showing In-Feed Video/Image Ads

I have said it before and no doubt I’ll say it again: “In the end, it all comes down to money”.  That is really a fundamental truth and it has not taken that long for Instagram to jump on the bandwagon.

Instagram is getting the advertisement makeover and it’s starting with users in the US. In a recent blog post, Instagram says that users in that country are going to start seeing video and image advertisements.  Instagram says that the ads will start appearing over the next few months and will come from brands that you don’t follow.  This will ‘start slow’. “We’ll focus on delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community.” says Instagram.

These advertisements, will be made to feel ‘as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy’, says Instagram. The good thing is that users will have some control as there will be ad controls that you can tweak.  You’ll be able to hide ads you don’t like and give feedback about why you did that. This feedback will then be used to tweak your future ads.

The introduction of advertising toInstagram was inevitable, considering that its parent company, Facebook, is one of the biggest global modern ad-driven companies. But given the nature of Instagram, a focused feed of single-serving images, it is likely that advertising will be far more disruptive than it will on Facebook, which is already comprises of a variety of sizes and formats of such.

Instagram is investing in a series of ad partners that can produce high-quality advertising ‘content’ that will not clutter the feed with bad concepts from day one.  Advertisements are everywhere, and ad-supported products are quickly becoming the norm, rather than the exception.   I think we had better get used to it people, the powers that be did it years ago with television.  Now, I think I’ll have a famous coffee house latte, while I read some premium content on my iTablet, because I’m worth it… And you say “advertising doesn’t work on me”…right?

[Image via: boardworld]

SOURCE: http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/03/instagram-starts-showing-in-feed-video-and-image-ads-to-us-users/